Gas turbine engines, such as those providing propulsion for aircraft, generate heat at the rotor assemblies during operation. Following shutdown of the engine, the rotor assembly is stationary (i.e., not rotating), which generally results in asymmetric heat distribution or thermal gradients circumferentially and/or axially along the rotor assembly. Such thermal gradients may generally result in thermal bowing or bowed rotor, such as along the radial, axial, and/or circumferential directions. Bowed rotor results in relatively large eccentricity relative to one or more casings surrounding the rotor assembly. As such, when a rotor assembly resumes operation, such eccentricity may generally cause the rotor assembly to operate with undesirable magnitudes of vibrations such as to damage surrounding casings, bearing assemblies, load structures, etc. Furthermore, such operation of the engine may result in airfoil blade tips rubbing into the surrounding casing, resulting in damage to the blades, the casings, or both.
Known methods to reduce rotor bow include allowing the rotor assembly to rest until the thermal gradient has naturally decreased over time such as to remove or eliminate the bowed rotor condition. However, in various instances, an engine may need to restart sooner than free convection heat transfer may allow. As such, there is a need for systems for reducing the thermal gradient of the rotor assembly such as to mitigate rotor bow in gas turbine engines.